What is the best Fighter and CAS template right now?

[JumboJoshBrah]

Im kinda new to the game and I dont understand planes at all, I try making atleast a decend airforce but its all red even on civilian mode. Can someone help me?

[Big [REDACTED] Marty]

there is a long list of factors

plane design is 1 part of holding green air

you need airbases that can cover the whole region, or as much as possible, so cover the channel from london not wales

you need detection to properly fight, so build radars close to high importance air zones, like the channel, so build radars along it's coast

if your enemy has more planes than you, and you can't overwhelm them with your airforce, just withdraw until you can build up enough planes to fight back, you will only bleed away your planes uselessly otherwise, adding AA to your divisions and state AA to a lesser extent, will help your troops cope with red air until you take back the skies

supply, planes need it, more planes need more, so stacking 4000 planes with 1 hub between them is unwise, also airbases CAN NOT under any circumstance be overloaded, your mission efficiency will plummet with even 1 too many air wings and you will lose very quickly

fuel, planes need fuel, if you have no fuel, your planes will still try to fly, but their efficiency will be terrible and you will lose

meta fighters are full HMGs, twin engines, sealing tanks, armor plates, and the last slot is up to you based on your needs

you can use CAS, but TAC bombers are better, 1 medium bomb bay, 2 small bomb bays, and heavy bomb locks will give you more ground attack than any CAS design, with more range, however they are much more expensive to build

[mlmcdougal]

Here's a link to a bunch of guides (a few of the specific strategy guides are a little dated, but most of the "How to..." and "Best this and that" are still valid. There's 61 pages, 10 guides to a page, intermixed with another game or two... Enjoy!

https://gamerempire.net/author/adrian-oprea/

edit> The German Strategy guide in the above collection is dated and only recommended to play with v.1.14.5. It's the best "beta" version to play with right now because the latest release is still full of crap bugs. Besides, the v1.14.5 version is not nearly as complicated as the latest version and it's the version I'm playing with now.

[thats crazy]

in the most simple terms: tons of guns
stack a bunch of guns onto your fighters with the best engines possible, air attack and agility are what you need

CAS designs arent as important, put bomb locks and whatever other bombing modules you need for missions, range and ground attack are the most important, if you have green air you dont really need to worry about air defence on cas as much

this only really goes for major powers

[HappySack]

Range is one of the most important things but that only matters when attacking, second is numbers as even a good plane design will lose if significantly outnumbered and you try to fight head-on.

I recommend you keep your planes cheap but heavily armed until you can research the best components but just telling you what the best designs are without you understanding anything would teach you nothing.

[AdmiralPiett]

Great. More toxic meta pushing. :(

[pjd110]

Like Big Marty said Tac bombers do more damage but are more expensive. They are also harder for AI fighters to shoot down if you stack some defense on them. The main thing that shoots down CAS and Tac is AA. Limit your bombing missions to ground support in air zones with a lot of enemy AA.

You can also try Sky Tank style Heavy Fighters . They can easily dominate a sky zone out-numbered two to one or more. Two engines as many turrets as possible and then the rest guns. They are expensive though. They also will help regular fighters win when out numbered when they make up about 30% of your total fighters.

[Waavy_Cookie]

I like to produce cheap but good planes. I run small air frames for my fighters with as many HMGs as possible, the best single engine, self sealing fuel tanks, extra fuel tanks, and maybe armor plates.

For my CAS designs I still like to run cheap planes. Most of the time you should be running CAS when you have green air to get the best efficiency which means you don't need that much defense because they shouldn't encounter any planes at all. I use a small air frame, as many small bomb bays and bomb locks I can fit, the best single engine, dive brakes (not sure if these are worth it or not), self sealing fuel tanks, and extra fuel tanks.

I want to have as much range as I can on my planes that way I don't have to constantly build air fields or move my planes around that much. I just let them do their thing.

Really almost any design will work against the AI as long as you have enough air attack and air defense. Whether you want to build cheap planes where several can do a lot, or more expensive planes where a few can do a lot. It is up to you really.

[Citizen X]

Hello.

There are 4 roles of Air power. The first role is Air Superiority. You must control the skies. You do this by having the best fighter, produced in large numbers, quicker your enemies can. You cannot use any other planes until you control the sky. (Except spy planes)

You now control the skies. Second role is to gather Intelligence. Use Camera module and refit your old Mediums into Spy Planes. This gives you direct bonus in combat, but Spy Planes can also show you things in the enemy territory, like enemy divisions behind the front line. (Spy Planes can be used during PEACE time!)

You control the skies, and you can see everything on the battlefield. Third role of Airpower is to Strike. Strike your enemy. Use whatever size plane and weapon combination to strike boats, factories, men, whatever you need.

The last role of Air power is logistics. Transport planes can drop supplies to your men who need it, and they can drop Paratrooper Divisions behind enemy lines and over water, expanding your strategic options enormously.

3rd and 4th rule can be interchanged

[CH13F]

while a design affects your planes combat capabilities it also modifies your country's industrial power. by making it more expensive and cheaper, you can have smaller or larger airforce, and again numbers "might" affect combat. its all a circle.

what you need to think : which country you playing as, your resources, will the trade routes for rubber and oil going to survive if you go war with a specific enemy? so naturally can you maintain numbers? how many planes your enemy has? air detection? do you have radars? scout planes escorting? weather in engagement? distance to airfield? designs' range? etc etc etc, very long list.

i m gonna keep short , what im trying to say all the things we have counted might result with if you gonna get green or red air. even the AI behaviour can be count.

we cant fully help unless you tell us the situation you re in

[eoozy]

I just use the plane presets from the designer, they still mostly beat the AI, just remember to train your planes before you use them.

[skshus]

fighter 2 airframe (the 1940 one, not 36) with max heavy mgs, extra fuel tanks, engine 3, armour plates and self sealing is currently the best you can do that isn't super late game

for cas it's the same but you can change armour to the diving one for extra ground attack or just not have it, and obviously swap heavy mgs for bomb locks (though u might have to remove some if ur overweight) is also the best u can do without going super late

[skshus]

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

Great. More toxic meta pushing. :(

it's not toxic to give the best plane designs when they're asked for 🙂

[AdmiralPiett]

Originally posted by pro drawer:

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

Great. More toxic meta pushing. :(

it's not toxic to give the best plane designs when they're asked for 🙂

any sort of "meta" is toxic. it kills games. takes all the fun out of it and turns it from the historical grand strategy game "hearts of iron 4" into the math game "spreadsheet simulator 2016"

[pjd110]

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

Originally posted by pro drawer:

it's not toxic to give the best plane designs when they're asked for 🙂

any sort of "meta" is toxic. it kills games. takes all the fun out of it and turns it from the historical grand strategy game "hearts of iron 4" into the math game "spreadsheet simulator 2016"

Do you not look at the numbers when you design templates and equipment? Game is just a statistical simulator in a WW 2 costume. Some people who play it dont even care about the real historical details. Their just here to play with army men. What does it matter to you how other people play? It shouldn't effect you and take the fun out of it for you. You can play how you want to play how they want to play. If other peoples opinions and theories of the game bother you and effect your enjoyment of the game, then stop reading the forums.

Also, consider the fact that your condescending purist casting of aspersions on min/maxers is itself toxic.

[AdmiralPiett]

Originally posted by pjd110:

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

any sort of "meta" is toxic. it kills games. takes all the fun out of it and turns it from the historical grand strategy game "hearts of iron 4" into the math game "spreadsheet simulator 2016"

Do you not look at the numbers when you design templates and equipment? Game is just a statistical simulator in a WW 2 costume. Some people who play it dont even care about the real historical details. Their just here to play with army men. What does it matter to you how other people play? It shouldn't effect you and take the fun out of it for you. You can play how you want to play how they want to play. If other peoples opinions and theories of the game bother you and effect your enjoyment of the game, then stop reading the forums.

Also, consider the fact that your condescending purist casting of aspersions on min/maxers is itself toxic.

But that's the whole point. True fans of the genre and its historical nature like me DO believe in letting people play how they want to play. We believe in RP, alt history, meme gaming, fun, all of it.

It's the metagamers and min/maxers who say there's only "one right way" to play the game. Hence this discussion: what's the "correct" template for fighters and CAS is a question that implies there is "one right way" to play the game